While my work often takes me on the road to clients' homes, my base of operations remains in my own home. There was a thought in my mind, when I first started my home improvement business, to rent out office space. But since most of my paying jobs involve field work, it didn't seem to make much sense to spend money renting office space. With computers so finely networked these days, a home office proved more than sufficient.

At the same time, I rant into many problems in the early days of working from home. Most of them centered on the ability to focus, and having a pair of kids running around the house didn't help matters. Yet even work-from-homers who don't have kids face focus problems. 

It is with many years' experience that I feel comfortable laying out ways I've found increase my focus and make it easier to get work done. 

Set strict boundaries

Even if you don't have kids around the house, you need to set strict boundaries when working from home. Otherwise you'll find yourself pulled in every which direction, and by the end of the day you'll have accomplished nothing. There are a few suggestions I make for setting these boundaries.

• If you can spare a room, take that opportunity. If you have your desk in the corner of a room that is used for another purpose, you are inviting distractions.
• If you have kids, let them know that there are times when they cannot bother you under anything but emergency circumstances. If they need a ride somewhere, don't bother asking, because you're not available.
• Set aside time to work without email, instant messages, and social media. Unless you work in a hot-button industry, people can wait for responses. 

Use all available tools

This might seem counterintuitive, but you should install any tool you think will help your work. It might seem like a distraction to have two web browsers, a few different email and instant messaging clients, billing software, and countless others. But as long as each program serves a distinct purpose, you should install it. There is nothing less productive than using a suboptimal tool for any given job.

People think I'm nuts for communicating through both Skype and Gchat. They think I'm weird for using an external Twitter client rather than the website. Yet these make me more productive. I can turn off Gchat when I need to get work done, knowing that my clients almost all contact me via Skype. Using a Twitter client makes it easier to block out stuff I don't want to see -- and in my experience makes it easier to shut off completely.

I use tons of other programs as well. When I need to run the books I run QuickBooks from www.intuit.com. When I want to send out an email newsletter I use MailChimp.com. There are other services I could use for these same functions, and in many cases they are less expensive. But I use and pay for these tools, because they help me focus on the work that will actually boost my bottom line. 

Get up and walk around

When you're getting nothing done, it might make sense, in your mind, to continue sitting down and plodding away. In reality, this makes no sense at all. If you're not focusing on your work, chances are you're doing many other things to distract yourself. It is incredibly difficult to refocus on your work after these distractions.

They key is to get up and walk around when you've hit a productivity wall. Exercise is great, and I recommend it to anyone who works at home. But merely getting up and walking to the kitchen, getting a glass of water, and maybe taking a stroll outside will do wonders. This physical activity, no matter how minor, acts like a reset button for your brain. When you get back to the computer you can refocus on that task that was giving you so much trouble before. 

Pick a quitting time

Entrepreneurs get constant praise for burning the candles at both ends. They accomplish more before you wake up than you will all day, and they're still working at the stroke of midnight. This sounds like a wonderful way to get a lot done and build a successful business. But it is also a recipe for burnout. 

Take pride in spending only a portion of your life on your work. There are other aspects, after all. When you have a family, this becomes even more clear. Truth told, I could work 13 or 14 hour days without thinking twice. But I do need to think twice, because I have a loving husband and two wonderful children who depend on me as much as I depend on them. To neglect them for the sake of my business is unfathomable.

It did almost come to that, though, and so I started setting quitting hours at around 5:30 every afternoon. That way I can spend time with the kids, help the husband with dinner, and generally spend quality time with the ones I love. If there's more to do, I do it after the kids go to bed and when the husband is occupied with a book or a baseball game.